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Eco-Friendly Sustainability: Give your Customer Service the Competitive Advantage

By Jordan Maxwell on November 14, 2019

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Where does your brand sit on the green-o-meter?

It’s worth asking yourself this, as more and more millennial customers are starting to pay attention to the environment, and holding businesses accountable for their services, company vision, and strategy to cut waste, pollution, and plastics. Customers seem to care about it – so perhaps you should, too.

For the food service and hospitality industry, this is definitely the case. Many governments and global companies are making moves to eliminate single-use plastic items from their inventory and are appealing to their customer base in doing so. The need for environmental sustainability is adding a new element of customer service demand to its customers in the industry and companies are developing strategies to not only keep customers, but also draw in a new labor force that is vital to a sector with a millennial audience.

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Workforce Management Tips for Call Centers During the Holiday Season

By Drew Wilkinson on November 13, 2019

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With Black Friday and Cyber Monday nearly upon us, the vast majority of retail call centers have welcomed new agents in the last few months. For example, in 2016, Radial hired 20,000 seasonal workers for its call center, customer service, and freight fulfillment operations – three times its permanent staffing numbers.

This rapid scaling of staff happens because retailers know they need to offer a consistent and pleasant customer support experience, even with the drastic increase in demand. If they don’t, they risk losing sales and leaving consumers disgruntled, potentially hurting future business. Despite the hiring of seasonal call center agents, the average number of support tickets per agent can still increase by 17% during the holiday season, putting much pressure on retailers, their stressed full-time staff, and new seasonal agents.

Optimizing schedules to meet the demands of the holiday season is crucial to ensuring that average wait times across your voice and live chat channels do not get out of hand. This is where workforce management comes in. Continue reading →

How Chatbots Can Support Your Live Chat Customer Service Strategy

By Jessica Suezin on November 7, 2019

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People often hear the word ‘bots’ and immediately think about some dystopian science fiction flick they’ve seen where robots ultimately take over the world and usurp humanity. There is still a lot of misunderstanding and miscommunication in the marketplace about bots, and artificial intelligence generally, which explains in large part the resistance some people have in adopting bots for their lives and businesses.

The truth is, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and messenger bots are a new frontier in technology that can be an excellent tool to support our businesses, particularly when it comes to customer service. When used and integrated into your call center and customer service strategy correctly, messenger bots have the potential to relieve backed up call center queues, assist busy customer service agents, and ultimately help serve more customers and increase sales and revenue for the long term.

This is how messenger bots can increase the efficiency of your customer service call center, improve customer satisfaction, improve the workflow of your customer service and call center agents, and increase the overall value of your company. Continue reading →

#CS Lessons: Samsung Sinks, then Swims, with its Customer Service Strategy

By Jordan Maxwell on November 5, 2019

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What do you do when you unveil a new smartphone or app that’s not quite ready to be released, even though you had a firm release date that 100% must meet? This challenging business situation is one Samsung recently found itself in when it botched the launch of its shiny new Samsung Galaxy Fold.

The company designed the Galaxy Fold (a smartphone that uses multiple new technologies and materials to create a display that is flexible enough to fold) and was excitement around it was building up prior to its release. The announcement of its release drew praise from Samsung users and lovers of technologies alike. Due to launch in April 2019, the device was viewed to be one of its potentially greatest products yet.

But a harsh reality set in, and early: Customer feedback delayed the launch and people begun to doubt the product.

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How to Prepare Your Call Center For Spikes in Call Volume: Credit Unions

By Drew Wilkinson on October 31, 2019

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Credit unions’ commitment to serving their members is reflected in their healthy growth: these financial institutions now count more than 110 million people as members and hold deposits totaling $1.1 trillion. When a growing sector builds its reputation on customer service, customers themselves can feel the strain of growth when that reputation is no longer met or exceeded. The bottom line is that keeping customers happy during an expansion is no easy feat.

Credit union call centers face a unique set of challenges beyond brisk growth. Traditionally smaller in size, credit unions often lack the resources to implement “best-in-class” technologies, making it especially tricky to tackle surges in call volume that come from rapid growth. With 76% of customers viewing customer service as the real test of much a company values them, long wait times can leave brand new members (and existing ones) annoyed and frustrated.

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Brand Spotlight: How Glossier Uses Customer Service to Perpetuate its Business

By Janki Lodhia on October 30, 2019

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If there is one modern-day company that is re-inventing the ropes of customer experience, it’s Glossier. Having completely shattered the standards of how to run a beauty business, Glossier continues to be the fastest growing beauty company that is predominantly focused on e-commerce.

It’s not surprising: One of the brand’s differentiators is its customer service offering. In fact, most businesses could learn from Glossier’s customer service structure as they leverage a modern approach to customer support, which promotes overall brand success. Glossier proves that it’s possible to innovate in the realm of customer service. Here are some insights into their successful, unique approach.

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Calls Are Taking Longer, and That’s a Good Thing

By Shai Berger on October 29, 2019

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It’s hard to get clear, objective data about the overall state of self-service technology. Case studies about specific projects are plentiful, but, as the saying goes, “the plural of anecdote is not data.” In addition, you always have to account for bias in that reporting: Vendors are going to highlight the data that makes their technology look good. Projects that succeed will be touted, and projects that fail get buried quietly.

If we want hard answers, we have to get a little more clever. Data released last week allows us to do just that.

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Are You Prepared for Unpredicted Spikes in Call Volume? [Slideshare]

By Drew Wilkinson on October 24, 2019

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While today’s tech-savvy consumers are using more non-voice channels to connect with businesses, the act of picking up the phone to quickly and verbally resolve an issue (complex or otherwise) isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. The problem with this? According to an Accenture study, consumers’ top two complaints were:

Having to contact customer service multiple times; and
Being kept on hold for too long.

This consumer pet peeve is exacerbated by the fact that contact centers routinely face expected, and unexpected, spikes in call volume. Expected spikes can be a result of seasonality and promotional events, and unexpected spikes can stem from product recalls or natural disasters.

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How To Provide Exceptional Customer Service Throughout The Holiday Season

By Jessica Suezin on October 22, 2019

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It’s the most wonderful time of the year! For most retail companies, the fourth quarter of the year is the busiest and most crucial part of the year for business. This can put a lot of pressure on customer service workers who are not only dealing with a higher volume of tickets but also, potentially, a more stressed shopper.

It’s important for retail companies to have plans and strategies in place when heading into the holiday season to ensure that customer service workers have the tools and resources they need to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction despite the influx of calls, chats, and emails from consumers looking for the perfect holiday gift (often, at the last minute!).

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5 Tips For Providing Quality Customer Service Training

By Jessica Suezin on October 15, 2019

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Great customer service starts with making great hires. But, that’s not where it ends. Providing excellent customer service has never been more critical. According to a recent marketing report by Gartner, 89% of businesses are now expected to compete on customer experience alone, compared to only 36% just a few years prior. No matter how talented your new hires are, they will not be successful without proper training.

So, how can you provide a great training experience for your customer service team? Here are five tips to help you get your team started on the right foot.

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